Santacops to give away 1,500 toys

Three Santacops from the San Juan police will take time out from their regular jobs on Wednesday to distribute toys and bring Christmas joy to at least 1,000 less fortunate children in the town.

"Christmas is for children, and there are still a lot of them who are neglected even on this special occasion. We can only hope that we can bring them some joy through this program," said Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, San Juan police chief.

Cruz said they have distributed coupons to children-beneficiaries, especially orphans housed at the nearby White Cross. They are also getting in touch with a number of non-government organizations (NGOs) in Tondo, Manila, he said.

The original Santacops, PO2 Wilfredo Abenoja, SPO1 Pablo Celloriquez and PO2 Pablo Sanquil, will spearhead the distribution of toys on Wednesday in front of the San Juan police station. This will be the third gift-giving program of the San Juan police force this year.

"We let the Santacops do it so it would have a personal touch and hope they could establish better rapport with the children when they hand out the gifts," said Cruz.

Since October, the San Juan police started soliciting from NGOs toys such as telephones, walkie-talkies, robots, doll houses, remote-controlled cars and organs. A total of 1,500 toys have been accumulated so far, Cruz said.– Non Alquitran